Building and using XML tree for data collection / reporting 1

[CherryPanda]

Hello,

I'm a long-time user / first time poster on these forums. This is my contribution, if anyone finds it helpful or has improvement ideas - great!
Synapse - VBScript is great for collection various data from AD but there aren't many ways to store/present complex data sets. Using XMLDOM allows us to have a navigational structure and data repository in one and this is how I choose to implement it:


<sub>Const adPersistXML = 1
Const adVarChar = 200
Const MaxCharacters = 255
Const adFldIsNullable = 32
Dim objBranches, objBranch, colLoggedEvents, objRSEvents
Set objConn = createobject("ADODB.Connection")
set objComm = createobject("ADODB.Command")
Set iAdRootDSE = GetObject("LDAP://RootDSE")
Set objTreeXML = CreateObject("MSXML2.DOMDocument")
objTreeXML.async = False
strNC = iAdRootDSE.Get("configurationNamingContext")
strNC = "CN=Administrative Groups,CN=fabrikam,CN=Microsoft Exchange,CN=Services,CN=Configuration,DC=fabrikam,DC=com"
strTop = "CN=Administrative Groups,CN=fabrikam,CN=Microsoft Exchange,CN=Services,CN=Configuration,DC=fabrikam,DC=com"
strCounter = 1
strPrevClass = "Top"
strPrevClust = ""
objConn.Provider = "ADsDSOObject"
objConn.Open "ADs Provider"
objComm.ActiveConnection = objConn
On Error Resume Next

Set objRoot = objTreeXML.createElement("Top")
objTreeXML.appendChild objRoot
Set objAttr = objTreeXML.createAttribute("CN")
objAttr.Text = strNC
objRoot.attributes.setNamedItem objAttr

arrTree = Array("msExchAdminGroup","msExchExchangeServer","msExchStorageGroup","msExchPrivateMDB")

For Each strLevel In arrTree
Call BuildTree(strLevel)
Next

objConn.Close
Set objComm = Nothing
Set objConn = Nothing

Sub BuildTree(strLevel)
Set objBranches = objTreeXML.getElementsByTagName(strPrevClass)
For Each objBranch In objBranches
strNC = BuildDN(objBranch)
objComm.CommandText = "SELECT cn, distinguishedName FROM 'LDAP://" & strNC & "'"_
& " WHERE objectCategory='" & strLevel & "' "_
& " ORDER By cn"
Set objRS = objComm.Execute
If Not objRS.EOF Then
objRS.MoveFirst
End If
While Not objRS.EOF
Set objRecord = objTreeXML.createElement(strLevel)
Set objAttr = objTreeXML.createAttribute("CN")
objAttr.Text = objRS("CN")
objRecord.Attributes.setNamedItem objAttr
If strLevel = "msExchExchangeServer" Then
Set objAttr = objTreeXML.createAttribute("Access")
objAttr.Text = True
objRecord.Attributes.setNamedItem objAttr
End If
objBranch.appendChild objRecord
objRS.MoveNext
Wend
objRS.Close
Set objRS = Nothing
Next
strPrevClass = strLevel
End Sub

Function BuildDN(objNode)
Set objBranchTest = objNode
BuildDN = ""
Do While objBranchTest.parentNode.nodeName <> "#document"
Select Case objBranchTest.TagName
Case "msExchAdminGroup"
BuildDN = BuildDN & "CN=" & objBranchTest.attributes.item(0).text
Case "msExchExchangeServer"
BuildDN = BuildDN & "CN=" & objBranchTest.attributes.item(0).text & ",CN=Servers,"
Case "msExchStorageGroup"
BuildDN = BuildDN & "CN=" & objBranchTest.attributes.item(0).text & ",CN=InformationStore,"
Case "msExchPrivateMDB"
BuildDN = BuildDN & "CN=" & objBranchTest.attributes.item(0).text & ","
End Select
Set objBranchTest = objBranchTest.parentNode
Loop
If Len(BuildDN) = 0 Then
BuildDN = strTop
End If
If Trim(UCase(BuildDN)) <> Trim(UCase(strTop)) Then
BuildDN = BuildDN & "," & strTop
End If
End Function

objTreeXML.save "ExcTree.xml"</sub>



This example is specific to building XML for MS Exchange and later using it to collect / store / present various aspects:


<sub><Top CN="CN=Administrative Groups,CN=fabrikam,CN=Microsoft Exchange,CN=Services,CN=Configuration,DC=fabrikam,DC=com">
<msExchAdminGroup CN="VISN 04">
<msExchExchangeServer CN="SITELOC1MSGA1" Access="-1" Cluster="SITELOC1CLUA1">
<msExchStorageGroup CN="Storage Group 1 (SITELOC1MSGA1)" LogPath="F:\sg1Logs" DBTotal="409.95" DBFree="241.94" LogTotal="38.99" LogFree="33.09">
<msExchPrivateMDB CN="SG1 DB1 (SITELOC1MSGA1)" EDB="48.92" STM="3.39" WS="5.17" />
<msExchPrivateMDB CN="SG1 DB2 (SITELOC1MSGA1)" EDB="24.83" STM="3.52" WS="1.18" />
</msExchStorageGroup>
</msExchExchangeServer>
</msExchAdminGroup>
<msExchAdminGroup CN="VISN 05">
<msExchExchangeServer CN="SITELOC2MSGA1" Access="-1" Cluster="SITELOC2CLUA1">
<msExchPrivateMDB CN="SG2 DB4 (SITELOC2MSGA1)" EDB="0" STM="0" WS="0" />
</msExchStorageGroup>
<msExchStorageGroup CN="Storage Group 1 (SITELOC2MSGA1)" LogPath="F:\sg1Logs" DBTotal="409.95" DBFree="218.31" LogTotal="38.99" LogFree="31.31">
<msExchPrivateMDB CN="SG1 DB1 (SITELOC2MSGA1)" EDB="45.73" STM="4.21" WS="2.63" />
<msExchPrivateMDB CN="SG1 DB2 (SITELOC2MSGA1)" EDB="30.71" STM="3.08" WS="0.36" />
</msExchStorageGroup>
<msExchStorageGroup CN="Storage Group 2 (SITELOC2MSGA1)" LogPath="F:\sg2Logs" DBTotal="409.95" DBFree="216.56" LogTotal="38.99" LogFree="31.38">
<msExchPrivateMDB CN="SG2 DB1 (SITELOC2MSGA1)" EDB="31.50" STM="2.69" WS="2.30" />
<msExchPrivateMDB CN="SG2 DB2 (SITELOC2MSGA1)" EDB="36.75" STM="4.53" WS="1.38" />
</msExchStorageGroup>
</msExchExchangeServer>

<msExchStorageGroup CN="Storage Group 1 (SITELOC2MSGS)" LogPath="L:\exchsrvr\mdbdata">
<msExchPrivateMDB CN="SG1 DB1 (SITELOC2MSGS)" EDB="2.51" STM="0.12" WS="0" />
</msExchStorageGroup>
</msExchExchangeServer>
</msExchAdminGroup>
</Top></sub>


This example already has some information filled in, such as Exchange storage groups drive sizes, EDB/STM, White Space and so on.

 

[mrmovie]

arrTree = Array("msExchAdminGroup","msExchExchangeServer","msExchStorageGroup","msExchPrivateMDB")

this is data which is currently stored in your vbscript, perhaps you should move this out of the script and into an xml file as well? your script can then consume it and its output will depend on what the xml input was?

 

[CherryPanda]

This is a great idea. I was starting without any initial XML file at all, but this is much better and will make for a truly universal approach. Thank you.

 

[mrmovie]

no worries cherrypanda, check out the vb.net xml serialization and deserialization or is it hydration i can never remember.